“I just remember my freshman year, they had Rodney Chatman, Ibi Watson, Chase Johnson and Jordy Tshimanga, all those transfers sitting out,” Edwards said, “and you would see those guys in practice every day. Managers and staff would talk and say, ‘Oh, we’ve got a chance to be pretty good next year.’ But nobody knew what it was going to be until we really got into the season.”
Edwards was on campus when he got the call that the A-10 tournament and NCAA tournaments had been canceled, bringing a shocking end to a historic season.
A year later, Edwards was one of the few managers who got to watch games at UD Arena with limited attendance restrictions during the pandemic. Then as a senior in the 2021-22 season, he was at the end of the bench in Orlando, Fla., when Mustapha Amzil hit the buzzer-beater to beat Kansas.
Edwards and everyone else on the bench jumped out of their seats and ran to center court to celebrate.
“I think we all chased Mustapha,” Edwards said. “It was a great experience.”
Edwards hopes for more great times in his new position as director of basketball operations at Dayton. UD announced his hiring in August.
Although only one player, Malachi Smith, remains from Edwards’ last season as a student manager, the staff is largely the same. Jermaine Henderson, now entering his second season, is the only new assistant coach. Andre Watson, entering his second season as a graduate assistant, also was on the staff when Edwards was last with the Flyers.
“I’ve always looked up to these guys,” Edwards said. “They’ve always taken care of me. So it’s been great to be back here.”
Edwards first pursued the position a year ago after his first season as a graduate assistant at Jacksonville State University in Alabama. He said he didn’t have enough experience. The job went to Jack Warren, who spent one season in the position before announcing in August he was leaving college athletics after nine years.
Edwards was promoted to coordinator of basketball operations last season at Jacksonville State. That experience, plus the knowledge he gained going through the interview process the first time at Dayton, helped him land the job this time. He’s back on campus two years after graduating.
Edwards majored in accounting and minored in entrepreneurship at UD. He’s a Pittsburgh native who graduated from Norwin High School in Irwin, Pa.
Edwards played basketball in high school and heard about UD from a cousin. His dad brought up the idea of working with the basketball team as a student manager. During a visit to campus as a senior in high school, Edwards reached out to UD’s staff and met with then assistant coach Anthony Solomon. He also met another member of the staff, Andy Farrell, who invited him to return that summer to help with the youth basketball camps.
Edwards worked every camp that summer in 2021 and joined the student managers when he arrived on campus for his first semester. By the time he was a senior, he had decided to try to get a job in coaching or college athletics. He credited James Haring, Dayton’s director of basketball operations from 2019-21 and now an assistant coach at Radford, for being a mentor and providing the connection that led to his first job at Jacksonville State.
“He’s been awesome to me,” Edwards said. “I can’t thank him enough.”
Edwards worked on Ray Harper’s staff at Jacksonville State.
“At Jacksonville State, I got to experience a lot of different things within a college athletics program,” he said. “My first year as a GA, I was heavily involved in scheduling and working with the administration. Then, eventually, after that season ended, our ops guy left, and that’s when I got bumped to ops. Again I was able to get my hand in a lot of different things within the program. So it was a great experience.”
The director of operations does a little bit of everything. According to the job advertisement on HoopDirt.com, “responsibilities include coordination of all team travel, managing player and staff communication platforms, facility scheduling, assisting with camp coordination, on-campus recruiting and operating logistics, serve as liaison with marketing and promotions, compliance and equipment and apparel.”
Edwards said his job is “to make the coaches’ lives easier and bridge the gap between them and other resources within the athletic department.”
For example, he is the bridge between the coaches and the student managers or the coaches and professors. A big part of his job right now is planning travel for the trip to the Maui Invitational in November.
Since returning to campus, Edwards has had time to judge what kind of team Dayton might have in the 2024-25 season, which starts Nov. 4 with a home game against St. Francis.
“I’m excited,” he said. “Obviously, there’s a lot of new faces. The hardest part is just trying to put all those faces and pieces together. I think every team in the country right now is dealing with that.”
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